


A Plethora of Choices (Down the Wrong Road)

by Clownnap



Series: Oneshots [3]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Author is a Clay | Dream Apologist (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Descent into Madness, Gen, Hearing Voices, No Dialogue, Sad Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Sad Ending, Sympathetic Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), The Disc War on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Villain Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), depending on how you look at it, except it’s normal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:15:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29808261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clownnap/pseuds/Clownnap
Summary: It would be of no surprise if you walked by someone and they would be talking to themselves, having soft spoken conversations or even full blown arguments with what seemed like the air. It was normal for the people of the Dream SMP. Sapnap would ask advice on which building he should burn to his ‘Saplings’, Puffy would be speaking softly to her ‘Flock’ as she’d walk down the prime path and Tommy would normally have screaming contests with his ‘Inniters’. It was no surprise that everyone had voices in their heads.Everyone had voices in their heads. Well, everyone except Dream.
Relationships: Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF) & Everyone
Series: Oneshots [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2099889
Comments: 3
Kudos: 107





	A Plethora of Choices (Down the Wrong Road)

**Author's Note:**

> I had a sudden burst of motivation to write this-
> 
> Oh my god I’m sorry for being ia but school is kicking me in the ass rn

It would be of no surprise if you walked by someone and they would be talking to themselves, having soft spoken conversations or even full blown arguments with what seemed like the air. It was normal for the people of the Dream SMP. Sapnap would ask advice on which building he should burn to his ‘Saplings’, Puffy would be speaking softly to her ‘Flock’ as she’d walk down the prime path and Tommy would normally have screaming contests with his ‘Inniters’. It was no surprise that everyone had voices in their heads.

  
  


Everyone had voices in their heads. Well, everyone except Dream.

  
  


And maybe that was the reason for the so-called god’s fall from grace. Why the reason he had swerved off onto such a self destructive road full of suffering. Maybe it was because his voices had abandoned him just like everybody else had, and the last straw that had been holding him together finally snapped, breaking his mind and shattering into pieces far too small to put back again.

  
  


Maybe it was the reason he had went mad with power- for power, craving any sense of direction and control in his life since it constantly felt like he was on a wild horse with no reins. 

  
  


The voices in his head had left him, gone to who knows where in the darkest places of his head. They weren't there to guide him anymore, out of the hell that is his own mind. Voices are known to direct people into the right paths in their lives, either it be a blood-covered path full of war and bloodshed like Techno, or a peaceful life with quiet mornings and rest-filled days like George They tell people things that no other being knows, as if they could see into the future.

  
  


With nobody to guide him, Dream was left like a lost puppy in the dirt, waiting for his mother to come back. And like a curious dog he wandered. He wandered onto different roads to try and find what was best for him- what was meant for him. He had tried a more quiet life after the voices left, not bothering to check up on stuff like the election and its parties.

  
  


(He wondered if his voices were still here, if they would’ve never let him allow Schlatt onto his lands again)

  
  


After the new president had exiled Tommy and Wilbur, he decided to try and be helpful for once, to see if his place were to lie with the Pogtopians. Yet he saw how Tommy had gotten more quiet as the anxiety-filled ravine had seemed more and more claustrophobic, as his Inniters had been telling him only what the blond teen knew. How Wilbur had seemed more and more distant with himself as his ‘Sky Gods’ whispered awful things into his thoughts, twisting morals and bending beliefs.

  
  


He couldn’t stand to be in the ravine any longer, so he took a walk in the newly dubbed Manberg, a perfect opportunity for the horned-menace that is Schlatt to whisk him away with a deal. With charismatic smiles and cloying words, the deal seemed too good to be true. A book that holds the power to bring people back to life, for Dream’s loyalty to Manberg.

  
  


(He wondered if his voices were still here, if they would’ve guided him back to Pogtopia, away from the lies and false promises)

  
  


Wilbur corners him one night, confronting his loyalty to his once owned nation. When Dream asks him how he knew, he says his Sky Gods had told him. Ignoring the pang that goes through him at that, Dream decides to strike a deal. It was simple, no matter what happened, Wilbur would blow up Manberg.

  
  


Dream didn’t know what had urged him on to do this. Maybe it’s because he knew that the country was trouble from the start, his voices demanding him to rip it and its inhabitants to shreds throughout the independence war. Maybe it was because of his own bitterness towards the nation. Or maybe it was because of Wilbur himself, how he looked so hopeless when Dream had admitted he sided with Manberg, his own unfinished symphony, with a hidden look of exhaustion and utter loneliness. And no matter how much Dream wanted to deny it, Wilbur reminded him so much of himself.

  
  


(He wondered that if his voices were still here, if he would’ve made this deal in the first place. If he would’ve seen himself in the lost and broken ex-president)

  
  


Manberg is blown up. It’s citizens cry and scream after they’re led into false security, and they can’t help but feel guilt and regret as they didn’t listen to their own voices telling them that something was missing, that Wilbur had seemed missing even if he was standing right in front them with a sword through his chest, leaning onto his own father for prime’s sake.

  
  


Dream doesn’t feel anything. He doesn’t feel satisfied that the nation is gone, even as he lets out a malicious shout of joy for everyone to hear. He doesn’t feel complete like he thinks he should’ve as if this is what his voices would’ve wanted. All he feels is the crushing weight on his shoulders that he can only identify as emptiness. He misses his voices.

  
  


(He wonders that if his voices had stayed, if this is still how he’d turn out, a monster in everyone’s eyes, even himself’s)

  
  


New L’manberg is made, and Dream doesn’t know if he should feel a burning fury in his throat at the thought, or the empty numbness that has made a home in his heart. Tommy burns down George’s house and Dream doesn’t know what to do, if he should punish the teen or let him be. After all, it was just a house, they could rebuild it.

  
  


But he thinks back to his voices, how they would yell and scream at him to punish even the slightest mistake the L’manbergians would make and he takes another step down the road of insanity. Tommy has other plans, bringing up his old horse’s leather to his advantage. At that, Dream feels desperation as he stares at Spirit’s white pelt being  _ used _ , and he snaps.

  
  


Tommy is exiled, and Dream thinks about what the voices would do in this situation. He thinks how they would urge him to taunt and sneer at the fallen L’manbergians, so he does. He mocks Tommy, strips him of his armor and monitors him to make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble.

  
  


(He wonders if he’s going too far, if the voices would stop him in this situation. He thinks back to how peaceful they were before the independence war.)

  
  


George is assassinated. Dream feels helpless. This time, he doesn’t think of the voices and dethrones him himself. Arguments arise and Dream tries to defend his stance, even when each word is choked out as if it hurts him and he has to force down tears each time an insult is hurled at him. That night Dream feels lost, unsure if what to do, and with his voices gone, it feels like he’s following a spinning compass in his head.

  
  


(He wonders if he had taken the voices into consideration, if things would’ve been handled better.)

  
  


Logstedshire is blown up at his own doing, Dream thinking that  _ this is what the voices would’ve wanted, what they would’ve _ guided  _ you to do _ . Tommy runs and Dream thinks for just a moment, if he should let him be. But the voices never let Tommy be, so he continues to search.

  
  


Tommy’s in Techoblade’s house, Dream learns. He decides to look around, and not five minutes later he hears the chomping of a golden apple from the weirdly shaped box at the door. He ignores it, instead focusing on how often Techno is twitching from anxiety or irritation, he doesn’t know.

  
  


(He wonders if the voices were still here, if they would be able to tell what was bothering the Blood god)

  
  


Dream finds Tommy and Techno at the Greater SMP’s nether portal and he tries to pressure the piglin into giving Tommy to him. It doesn’t work, and Dream wonders if Techno’s ‘Chat’ told him to protect the boy. It had to have been, Techno wouldn’t willingly put himself in the way of Dream for Tommy of all people, _ right?  _ Dream ignores the thought, voices could provoke you to do questionable things anyways. He also ignores how hypocritical he sounds.

  
  


The Green festival comes. Tommy surely heard of it by now and would no doubt try to spy. Dream devises a plan to lure the boy out to finish the job once and for all. With a heavy heart and bittersweet tears, ream blows the community house like there’s no tomorrow. When he walks from the wreckage with uncertainty clouding his mind, Dream thinks to himself, _ this is what the voices would've told you to do. _

  
  


(Would they have?)

  
  


The next day comes. Dream accuses Tommy, everyone watching from the sidelines with conflicting expressions. He manages to lure the teen out, but he sides with L’manberg again. With everyone protecting Tommy, Dream knew that he had to go for the next best thing.

  
  


He plans with Techno and Phil to finally rid the nation and it’s troublemakers. Wither skulls and crates of TNT are exchanged. They arrive earlier than needed and start their reign of terror.

  
  


Dream can almost hear his voices screaming at him to slaughter everything and anything mercilessly in his path of destruction as ash and grit rains around him from the explosives. He sets off stacks and stacks off TNT, watching the nation that he hated so dearly get reduced to nothing but a crater in the ground.

  
  


Tommy and Tubbo shout in rage and sorrow and grief at him, stating how much of a heartless bastard he is, crying as their home is yet again being torn apart. Dream hears them, but he doesn’t listen. The only thing on his mind is how happy the voices would be if they were with him again and would praise him when no one else would.

  
  


(Would they really? Would they be happy that there are children traumatized and others grim at the lands full of misery and grief with him as the cause?)

  
  


Like the first time, Dream doesn’t feel anything well up with satisfaction in his chest or an urge to mock and taunt the members of the ruined country. Instead he feels nothing, like the past months he had been enduring. When he flees, Dream feels more and more lost with his life, then he ever has.

  
  


He asks himself, why? Why is he doing this? To please the nonexistent voices inside his head that have long since abandoned him? Why would he try to gain the appeal of the things that had left him to rot and are likely never coming back? Is it because of the control that he used to have over his life? The sense of direction that has at least been a little present?

  
  


(He wonders, for just a moment, if it’s because he’s scared. Scared of the unpredictable waves that can either drag him down or bring him up if he doesn't know the swim to safety. He quickly brushes it off)

  
  


Maybe, Dream thinks, they left because of the L’manbergians and their disturbance they had brought to the lands. The voices did leave not long after the independence war, so what if the voices had been angered due to the land that had been stolen from him? Maybe, Dream thinks, if he got rid of the remaining residents of the troublesome nation, then the voices would be pleased with him. Maybe, Dream thinks, if the server goes back to the way it was before, the voices would come back.

  
  


Yeah, Dream thinks, then everything will be back to normal, back to peace and he can finally relax, finally stop wondering if he’s doing things right or if the voices would want this or contemplate at night what he was doing with his life. And so, he devises a plan. A plan that would work- that Dream made sure would work because it can’t, because if it does fail then Dream wouldn’t know what to do.

  
  


It was simple: Get every known attachment on the land to make sure no one would go against him and control the SMP, get rid of the ex-L’manbergians and everything will go back to normal.

  
  


(He ignores how his hands shake and how his breath stutters as he places blackstone after blackstone to make up his vault of precious attachments. How an ugly feeling curls in his gut as he thinks up his plan. How he thinks that it’s already hopeless when he thinks that the taste of peace is right on the tip of his tongue.)

  
  


He goes for Tommy and tubbo first. Dream calls the boys to the cliffs that can reach above the clouds and taunts and spits and hurls insult after insult at Tubbo and watches as Tommy gets more antsy and angered and how his movements are more predictable, his slashes more sloppy and thinks,  _ I’ve got him right where I want him. _

  
  


It doesn’t take long to incapacitate both of the teens and he leads them down below into his vault and shows them his plan. They shout at him, declaring him as a psychopath, saying that it’s unfair, asking him how he doesn’t hurt.

  
  


(He ignores how he winces at the first statement, the guilt running through him at the second and how he goes quiet at the third.)

  
  


Dream is about to lead them to the prison, and be done with the two of them once and for all when Punz steps through the portal. Dream looks over at him, disbelief and unfettered anger drawing onto his hidden features and relief fueling Tommy and Tubbo’s smiles and shouts of joy.

  
  


Stripped of his armor, weapons and everything in his possessions, Dream is escorted to the prison, the one he commissioned Sam himself and is set in the highest security cell.

  
  


And now, curled up at the farthest obsidian wall from the harsh glow and heat from the flowing lava wall, with nothing but a cauldron of water with books and lectern, the feeling of tightness in his throat and stinging in his eyes as Dream realized he failed, realizing that he’s never going to get out and the voices are never going to come back and his friends will never love him again,

  
  


All Dream could think of was,

  
  
  
  
  


_ I miss the voices. _

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact I wrote this since everyone else streams on the SMP instead of Dream so I decided to put voices in everyone’s head (twitch/YouTube chat) instead of Dream since he stopped streaming on the SMP after the l’manberg war
> 
> Also I skipped a bunch of events and this is all over the place I’m sorry-


End file.
